Reject SRC nominees pandering to MPs' money demands

No single institution in Kenya that has threatened the independence of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission more than Parliament.

The SRC has endured verbal attacks, intimidation and budget cuts inflicted by MPs – all in a bid to cripple the commission. MPs have used all tactics to arm-twist the SRC to yield to their unquenchable thirst for perks.

However, the previous commissioners stood their ground and resisted coercion by Parliament. The SRC is a constitutonally independent entity and no one can take that away.

It’s, therefore, disturbing when former MPs battling for a slot on the SRC are promising to give in to lawmakers' outrageous pay demands. During interviews on Monday, they promised to “improve the MPs' perks to reflect their demanding work”.

That statement alone should be their ticket to disqualification. It’s an early signal of betrayal of taxpayers languishing in poverty. Who will speak for underpaid civil servants? It’s a fact that Kenyan MPs are the most pampered and pandered to in the region and the world.

These former MPs are clear opportunists. They should be summarily rejected for lacking principle and kowtowing to greedy MPs to get jobs. Such characters have no place in progressive Kenya.

Quote of the Day: “Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters.”

Samuel Adams

The US Revolutionary died on October 2, 1803